Alice

nadia

Today I get to meet Nadia. Spencers ex, and the woman who in the eyes of the law will be my mother. I roll out of bed bright and early to get ready for the day. I put on a pair of black skinny jeans, a Friday the 13th shirt, and a hoodie.

I get outside and see joe building a cardboard fort while Patrick sits in a chair and watches him. They're both laughing like idiots

Spencer is talking to justin and his phone rings. He picks up the call and then drags me and justin to a different part of the parking lot.

"she should be pulling in any second." Spencer says.

"you ready spencer?" Justin asks him. Spencer looks nervous. No, he looks terrified.

A car pulls into a parking space near us. Spencer, Justin, and I start to walk over to the car as the woman gets out.

"hey! Its been a while!" She says, walking over and hugging spencer.

"it really has" spencer says, hugging her back. He has a huge smile on his face.

"Justin! Hi!" She hugs Justin too. I stand there awkwardly.

"and you must be mikey, its great to meet you!" She says, putting her hand out. I shake it.

"I am. Nice to meet you too." I say awkwardly. she smiles and hugs me tightly. its a little scary at first, but its a nice hug. 

"so, how long have you been staying with spencer?" She asks. I see her look down at my arms, both badaged with tan self adhesive tape. I try to ignore it.

"4 months almost? I don't know, I have a bad sense of time." I say. I try to think back and count the days, but they all seem to blur together, good and bad.

"wow. That explains why you're starting to dress like him too" she jokes. Spencer and I laugh.

"he did that all on his own!" Spencer says.

"well Chris helped, like half of mikeys clothes used to belong to chris." Justin chimes in.

"so, when all the paper work is done, what do you want to do?" She asks. There's a heavy silence. I never really thought about it outside of the occasional dream that would never come true.

"being able to go to high school and have friends. it would be nice but that's not realistic, maybe a job. You know, normal teenager stuff that I never got before." I say.

"not moving out" she puts air quotes around moving out. "or try to find people you knew before, or any of that?" She asks, seeming genuinely shocked.

"I don't think there's anyone he would want to find." Spencer says. Nadia puts her finger up at him and makes a sushing noise.

"he's right, there isn't really anyone who hasn't already accepted that I'm probably dead." I say.

"no friends from your old school that you want to tell you're alive?" She asks.

"I really only consistently had one friend but we stopped talking a little bit before... everything went down." I say.

"so, if you could pick the terms, it would be highschool, and a job?" She asks. I shrug. If I picked the terms there would be none.

"well, that settles it. Spencer, I will sign what ever I have to sign as long as mikey gets to have as normal a teenage life as possible." she says.

"thank you Nadia, you have no idea how much I appreciate this." Spencer says. I can see it click for Nadia that spencer does genuinely care about me.

"so um, if you want to come by a little later, after the show. You could meet all of the people who know about mikeys situation, and by proxy mine."

"so its more than Justin and Patrick now?" She asks.

"yeah, its a few more people now. Mostly for mikeys sake." Spencer says.

Nadia walks over to spencer and hugs him again. "it was really nice seeing you again spencer. Even if it's purely transactional, I enjoyed seeing you." She says.

"it was nice seeing you again too. Maybe we should talk more often." Spencer says.

Everyone goes thier separate ways to get ready for the show.

*

After the show, spencer takes me and Patrick to the part of the parking lot that we had the cookout in. The grill is still there.

Ricky, Chris, Vinny, Justin, Andy, and August are there. I see nadias car and assume she's somewhere in the small crowd.

"there he is, the man of the hour!" Ricky jokes. As we get closer to the group Nadia comes into view, almost hiding behind her car talking to andy.

Nadia walks over and hugs spencer. Ricky starts to dig through the bag he brought with him, he takes out a folder labeled spencer.

"I have a whole folder?" Spencer asks, laughing a little.

"Honestly once everything is signed I won't have anymore paperwork for you at all, its all mikeys stuff." Ricky says.

"good to know" spencer says.

"so, is there a story behind any of this or...?" Nadia asks.

"uhm... no idea. I mean all of this came together in the 4 months I've known mikey. Even less if you count until we told Ricky." Spencer says.

"You've only known him for 4 months? This kid has to be your perfect mini you or something."

"think spencer but less murder" Andy says.

"its hard to imagine with without any murder." Nadia jokes.

"not entirely without. I wish." I say. There's a short silence.

"what little I know of you, it was probably deserved." Nadia says bluntly. It's oddly comforting.

"Nadia is right, you guys need a story if anyone asks about it. And a story for everyone who knows mikey isn't biologically yours but doesn't know everything." Vinny says.

"how old are you?" Nadia asks me.

"15" spencer answers.

"16, in a few hours." I say.

"wait what? It's your birthday?" Spencer asks.

"Tomorrow, but yeah." I say. Spencer makes a face, I assume he's upset I didn't tell him my birthday earlier. I apologize.

"what are you sorry for? I mean I would have appreciated knowing my kid is turning 16, but you don't have to be sorry for that kid. I should've asked sooner." Spencer says.

"what about we go to breakfast for your birthday, just the three of us. Me, you, and spencer." Nadia says.

"that sounds nice. I didn't think my birthday was that important." I say, laughing a bit.

"of course it is mikey, you're my kid, I'm going to make sure you have a good birthday" spencer says.

"now I know what day to put on the birth certificate." Ricky says.

"so, what do I need to sign?"

A/n because this chapter and the next one are shorter than my usual I'm posting both of them tonight :)